In today's always-connected society, media content in the form of live, pre-recorded, or on-demand programming is nearly ubiquitous. For example, 24×7 news programs offer a continuous stream of live information throughout the day, and countless pre-recorded media sources are accessible, e.g., via the Internet, at any given time.
Media content may be broadcast, streamed, or otherwise delivered via any of a number of communication channels, using a number of different technologies. For example, delivery of streaming video media on the Internet generally includes encoding the video content into one or more streaming video formats, and efficiently delivering the encoded video content to end users.